THE PITCH
Joe Pistorio has been producing for 25 years, starting out on the advertising agency side in the shipping department, in full Horatio Alger mode, working his way to Director of Production for agencies such as Earle Palmer Brown and Arnold Worldwide. He has freelanced under the moniker PixelNation for agencies such as The Martin Agency, GSD&M and MarketPowerGroup, Inc. Joe has been intimately involved in several high profile campaigns such as the WorldCom launch with Michael Jordan in 1997, the US launch of software giant SAP in 2000, and PETA’s Kentucky Fried Cruelty Campaign 2008.
Over the years and hundreds of commercials he has produced, Joe Pistorio has worked for various clients such as Eargo Hearing Devices, Kobo eReaders, The Coalition on Donation, Mercury Insurance, Krazy Glue, People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), US Airways, Minnesota Lottery, Golden Corral, Roy Rogers, Wrangler Jeans, No Fear Clothing, Ping Golf Clubs, the Virginia Lottery, Dominion Power, the Smithfield Companies, Pocket Communications, and numerous others. Joe has worked both sides of the producing table-agency and production side. He line produced and supervised post-production on several projects for directors Scott Corbett and Ed Schumacher, and served as head of production for Boy Genius Films in Venice, CA.
As of late, Joe has followed the trend towards internal agency work, serving as Executive Producer for two startups, Kobo Books in Toronto and Eargo Hearing Devices in Mountain View, California. These two startups were challenging and exciting opportunities to be part of the initial branding for new companies. The demanding situations at both of these startups led to further development of Joes’s skillset: creating and managing content in an insatiable on line universe. Mastering the new tools and learning a new language in a decentralized production and post-production world: Adobe Gunslingers, Codecs, Bitrates, Buffering, Analytics, Social, Viral. More hands on editing, copywriting and wrangling of elements and hard drives. Ultimately, more input and control of the process to meet the needs of the client. Internal agency work has also led to more involvement in long form projects: social, training, tutorials, customer care videos programs, using the network of DP’s, editors, mixers and other post-production professionals he has continued to develop over the years.
THE WORK
Eargo “Bar B Q” :60
DRTV Campaign for Eargo Hearing Aids, directed by Mike Bigelow of Gartner.
PETA “Beatdown” :60
For PETA’s Superbowl Campaign, which was rejected. One of three spots in the campaign, I line produced and post supervised the project on a shoe string budget and many favors.
Krazy Glue "Severed Head" :30
A different take on a household staple.
Kobo “A Father’s Story” :30
Santa offshoring his underage work force to make electronics.
Virginia Lottery “Wayne’s World” :30
Wayne Newton is a Virginia native. A letter I wrote to his attorney convinced him to do the spot. Gary Weiss directed.
Eargo “Creation Story” :60
Using footage we shot of the creator of Eargo, we employed some other footage we shot along with some stock footage to tell the story of Eargo’s origin.
Ping Golf “Lollipop” :30
Directed by Mark Story, this campaign poked fun at the never ending gimmickry surrounding golf club design.
Eargo “House Painter” :60
Another in the series of DRTV spots for Eargo’s Misunderstandings TV Campaign.
MN LOTTERY “DANCEBOOTH” :30
Unsuspecting Minnesotans getting their dance on in this hidden camera spot filmed
mid-winter in Minneapolis.
Ad Council “Life” :30
A PSA from the Coalition on Donation to raise awareness about organ donation, directed by Jeff France.
No Fear “Jeremy” :30
This spot for No Fear Apparel featured Jeremy McGrath, “King of Supercross” doing his famous “Nac Nac” trick. Directed by Jeff Zwart.
Eargo “Testimonial John” :60
I managed the casting and vetting of these candidates for 8 months before we were ready to shoot. Afshin Shahidi directed.
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Kobo “Newscaster” :30
This spot was part of the Holiday Campaign for Kobo, running throughout Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The post-production CG work really made it shine.
Virginia Lottery “Cash Reward” :30
Directed by Don Rase, this was a clever take of the notion of skill and winning the lottery.
WorldCom “Michael” :30
Lensed by the legend Bob Giraldi, this was my first brush with the big time. I fed lines to Mr. Jordan and he made fun of my distinctive voice.
SAP “City of e” :30
This was for the launch of MySAP in the US. At the time, it was a very involved post process that produced some very cool visuals.
Golden Corral “Smokehouse” :30
LA Fire meets the Keystone Cops in this fun sendup of a gung ho fire response. Directed by Rob Pritts.
Xbox “Nazi Golf” :30
This spec piece was a novel approach to the melding of two of Xbox’s premier games,
Tiger Woods PGA and Call of Duty.
Wrangler “Break Them In” :30
A 3 spot campaign served as Wrangler Jean’s foray into the youth market. The music track was an homage to the electronica band Prodigy. Directed by Gil Cope.
PETA “Pusher” :60
Another spot in PETA's Kentucky Fried Cruelty 3 spot campaign.
Kobo “Pulp Fiction 2” Viral :30
This is one of two viral spots I produced at Kobo Books to introduce their backlit reader, the Kobo Glo.
Pocket Communications “Limo” :30
This upstart cell phone company in Texas was one of the disrupters of the industry. Fat cats beware.
Mercury Insurance “Crop Circle” :30
This spot was part of a large TV campaign to rebrand Mercury Insurance.
Virginia Lottery “Jacques Le Knife” :30
Shot in the Malibu Hills with the doyenne of early MTV in the lead role, Nina Blackwood.
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